Pancakes
by MusicNeverStops474
Summary: It's a special day and Tobey's determined to make it the best for his Mum. But will his strong will end up in perfection or disaster?


**Author's**** Note: This is my very quickly written, and kinda sucky tribute to Mother's Day that I typed up in around half an hour. Please read and tell me what you think all the same. I love to hear your feedback!**

**Disclaimer/ I own nothing.**

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BEEP! BEEP! BEE-

A small groan escaped young Theodore "Tobey" McCallister as he reached a hand to shut off his alarm. Funny, it didn't feel like seven yet; usually the morning sun was streaming through his blinds when he woke, but the entire room was still dark. Reaching for his glasses, Tobey glanced at his electronic clock. 5:01 am.

Well _that_ got his attention for sure. Why on earth was his alarm set to 5:00 am? Tobey was a very scheduled person and wake up calls at five in the morning were definitely not included in his day's schedule.

As he lay there for another few minutes, pondering over this unusual turn of events, his blowing fan caused a small piece of paper to flutter down to rest on his nose. Tobey squinted in the darkness and caught sight of some neon pink words in his handwriting. And then it hit him.

Mentally smacking himself, Tobey scrambled to get out of bed and in the process got even more tangled in his cave of sheets. After a good minute of tugging, Tobey's feet touched the floor making the boy cringe. Why did it have to be so COLD in the morning? He slipped on some oversized slippers before sleepily making his way downstairs.

Once in the kitchen, he flicked on the lights which buzzed and flickered before coming to life. He rubbed his hands together eagerly; he was going to make a breakfast so good; Mum would be in a good mood for at least the next week!

First thing first, a recipe for pancakes. When he'd been younger he very vaguely remembered his father making pancakes a lot. And in multiple family albums there were pictures of his father and Mum during her pregnancy with him flipping pancakes happily. Mum always looked so merry and happy in those pictures and Tobey wanted to make her happy again. She had such a beautiful smile; it made Tobey feel warm from his hair to his toes but sadly he didn't get to see it that often.

But he would see it today. He was determined to make this morning perfect.

So after searching through the cupboards and recipe boxes, Tobey had found a recipe and began assembling the ingredients for "Sour Milk Pancakes". Eggs, oil, and... sour milk? Tobey stared at the index card with furrowed eyebrows. What did they mean by _sour milk_? The only time he'd heard his mother use that expression was when milk went bad. But surely they didn't mean for him to put bad milk in pancakes?

Suddenly, his smile returned, Google! Oh the joys of the Internet, thought Tobey as he whisked himself over to his laptop. And after a brief moment a post popped up, _make your own by adding 1 tablespoon of fresh __squeezed__lemon juice__or distilled white vinegar._ Ah!

Vinegar...vinegar...vinegar...there it was, right at the bottom of the cupboard. But as he tried hoisting it onto the counter, he realized that it was a lot heavier than he'd first anticipated. This time using both hands, Tobey strained his puny arms and finally pushed the large bottle onto the marble countertop.

He wiped beads of sweat from his forehead before turning to the fridge to grab the other ingredients. Milk, eggs, oil, check! After grabbing a huge mixing bowl and wooden spoon, Tobey picked up one untarnished, pure white egg and stared at it calculatingly. How to crack it...well, he could hit it against something. But wouldn't that send egg everywhere? Maybe if he just tapped it lightly, he thought, not realizing that the smooth egg had slipped from his grasp.

With a splat, the egg hit the tiled floor getting icky egg not only on the floor but also all over his slippers. But as he glanced at the clock and saw that half an hour had already passed, he resolved to clean it up afterwards. He hadn't even started making up the batter and Mum was due to wake up in an hour!

He plucked another egg from the carton and cracked it lightly against the countertop but apparently, his lightly wasn't light enough and egg went flying once more. Finally after four or five more tries, he'd gotten it right and chucked the egg shell to the side with the rest of the splattered egg and shells.

Then came the sour milk. Tobey grabbed another bowl and poured more or less a cup of milk into it before glancing to the gigantic bottle of vinegar again.

His still sleepy brain suddenly visualized a face on the bottle laughing and mocking him. _You can't pick me up! _it taunted. Slowly, Tobey got his usual evil smirk and rolled up the sleeves of his robot pyjamas.

_Challenge accepted._

Getting the bottle of vinegar into the air was one thing, but trying to pour just enough to fill a tiny teaspoon was quite another, something Tobey found out the hard way. Several puddles of vinegar joined his fallen egg on the floor, which Tobey, of course, ignored because surely waiting till the end of his baking to clean up was the smart thing to do.

After finally finishing the wet ingredients, Tobey once again looked at the clock and gasped. It was six o'clock already and he wasn't even close to finishing the batter.

With a renewed urgency, Tobey scrambled around his mess of egg and vinegar on the floor to get his dry ingredients. Flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar, and salt. With the eyes of a madman on a mission, Tobey measured and poured at lighting speed (which would be around regular speed for us), determined to complete his goal before his Mum got up in a half an hour.

When he'd poured in the last of the salt, Tobey stirred and stirred and was bamboozled as to why the lumps weren't going away. But he grit his teeth together and continued on with the gruelling manual labour, stirring so hard he thought his hand might be red forevermore.

An electric mixer would have been so much simpler, but he couldn't allow for Mum to hear him and soon the batter looked smooth enough for him.

But as he reached into the bottom cupboards to find a frying pan, his uncoordinated self managed to knock over a whole heap of pots and pans. With a series of crashes and clangs, Tobey's mouth dropped in silent horror before his eyes snapped to the staircase.

He strained his ears and gasped when he heard Mum groaning and her bed creaking as she began to walk to the stairs.

No, no, no, NO!

"Tobey," her still groggy voice called, "is that you?"

"Uh, no?" Tobey called back hopefully.

"Tobey, what on earth are you-"

"No, you can't come down yet! I'm not done and-"

In Tobey's rush to sprint to the staircase, he'd forgotten about his pile of egg and vinegar and almost as if in slow motion, both feet skidded across the slippery tiles. Unable to stop, Tobey yelled frantically but continued all the way to the staircase where he finally tripped and crashed headfirst into the steps.

And then all went black.

0o0o0o0o0

Beep. Beep. Beep.

A different series of noises roused Tobey from his unconscious state and as his eyes fluttered open he caught sight of a whole lot of white. A room with only white? Crackers and jam, that could only mean one thing.

He was in the hospital.

"Tobey, sweetheart, are you awake?"

"Mummy?" He managed to croak out, his throat feeling unreasonably dry.

"Oh sweetie," Claire murmured, kissing his forehead softly before pulling back, "how do you feel?"

"My head hurts."

She chuckled lightly, "Well, that's understandable. It did have a run in with a staircase."

Tobey blushed and she continued, "Tobey, what on earth were you doing downstairs this morning?"

"I-," the words got caught in his throat, "I j-just wanted t-to..."

"What is it sweetheart? You can tell me."

"I just, uh, wanted to make you pancakes," muttered Tobey, pink spreading over his cheeks.

"Oh honey," Claire sighed fondly, giving him a tentative hug, careful of his bandaged head.

"Happy Mother's Day Mum."

...

"Could we have pancakes later?"

"Sure sweetie, we can make them together."


End file.
